Four stories by Tom Archdeacon make the top 10

DAYTON —

When 2018 began, Ohio State’s Urban Meyer was celebrating a Cotton Bowl victory, Kostas Antetokounmpo was trying to find playing time with the Dayton Flyers and Yasiel Puig was looking ahead to his sixth season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The year ends with all three men in different situations. Meyer will coach his final game with the Buckeyes on Tuesday in the Rose Bowl. Antetokounmpo is making his way in the G League. Puig now plays for the Cincinnati Reds.

It was an unpredictable year, but aren’t they all? Here’s a look back at the top-10 most-read stories on our websites.

Brad Koffel, the attorney representing former Ohio State assistant coach Zach Smith, used his weekly local radio show to blast the way the story has been covered, particularly the focus on head coach Urban Meyer.

“The past two weeks Columbus, the country, has personally witnessed reporters not report but draw inferences upon inferences and create narratives that are designed to grab eyeballs and clicks, not against corrupt public officials like the royal governor of New York that John Peter Zenger went to trial over but against football coaches. Football coaches!” Koffel said in the latest episode of his weekly show, “For the Defense,” which aired Sunday morning on 610 WTVN.

The mega-team Greater Western Ohio Conference apparently is on its way out.

Superintendents, principals and athletic directors met in the annual winter meeting Wednesday at the Huber Heights Athletic Foundation where a bomb was delivered: All of the American Conference North and South division teams want out. Their intention is to begin a new affiliation, excluding current GWOC South member Trotwood-Madison.

“Why is it that the only African-American school in that entire league isn’t allowed to be in (a proposed new) league?” Trotwood principal David White asked. “They didn’t (realign) based on geography or enrollment.”

Junior point guard John Crosby and 6-foot-11 freshman Jordan Pierce also requested and were granted their release from the program so they could transfer elsewhere. The trio — whose departure was revealed Thursday afternoon by Coach Anthony Grant — follows the exit of two other players, Xeyrius Williams and Matej Svoboda, since the Flyers ended their 14-17 season two weeks ago after losing to VCU 77-72 in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Washington D.C.

According to FanGraphs.com, Joey Votto has popped out on the infield only 16 times in his career and not at all in 2018. Jeremy Frank, of NGBaseball.com, brought this stat to everyone’s attention this week on Twitter.

Votto has popped out in the infield only seven times since 2010, and according to Frank, the average player with the same number of plate appearances (5,341) would have popped up in the infield 127 times.

The Thobe family from left: Erica, Kinsey, Gavin, Aubrey, and Dan. CONTRIBUTED

After Marion Local won the Division IV state basketball title by beating his team, 52-51, in double overtime at the Schottenstein Center on Saturday, Cornerstone Christian coach Dan Selle was right about everything … except for one thing.

Here’s the area teams we think qualified for the high school football playoffs and what those first-round match-ups will be. These pairings were based on joeeitel.com, the official website used by the Ohio High School Athletic Association to determine qualifying teams.